December 2010
59 posts
The ticking clock
This ever-knowing portrait of Orson Welles (as he appears in The Alias Men), courtesy of Brian Carroll, reminds me that the clock is ticking. This is the last day of work.
It’s all about compositing now. Jessica’s compositing Smithee, Stevens, and Manning, Brian, creator of that lovely drawing above, has come on board to composite Doe’s scenes, and I’m working on Nom...
I don’t want to bump down the exciting news that all of the animation is finished, but many people have been asking a question that needs answering! Folks want to know when is the deadline if you want your art of the characters to appear in the credits? Friday morning. Yikes, it’s scary how close that is. I got a movie to finish by then! Yeesh!
Speaking of reader art, here’s an...
Animation is complete.
Miyazaki once put every production drawing from the making of Spirited Away and put it in one big pile. It took up an entire wing of a museum. My sad little pile of sub-Hanna Barbera holds that move sometimes isn’t quite as impressive, but I’m proud of it.
Well, now to do post production a LOT of post production.
(How can I be so sure I won’t feel the need to do any more...
Whew! I’m very close to wrapping up animation, so I can jump into full on post production. Jessica sent these colored images of the inside and outside of the ship. She sent me another really cool image that I wish I could share, but alas, it’s the most spoilery single frame in the whole movie, so I can’t show it to ya.
Here’s some more reader art. This is David Manning...
Meet the Alias Men: Nom de Guerre
I should be really freaked out by now, but I’m confident! Here are things that should be leaving me in a panic but that I’m totally okay with because of my ridiculous optimism.
- I have two of five characters to animate still in the next 4 days. - I haven’t actually pencil tested a single shot. Besides the gifs and youtubes I made for this blog, I have no idea what this stuff...
Since I’ve been posting so many pictures of myself working in the sun, Jessica sent along a picture of herself working in the snow! She’s been a huge help, and I really would have been in huge trouble if she hadn’t come along and offered to help! I sent her the animation and edited video for half the film, and she’s coloring and compositing it while I wrap up the other...
Yikesers, you may not hear as often from me this week, as I’m battling valiantly against this deadline, and my poor jungle internet is struggling just to move files back and forth.
I have three characters animated, and off to Jessica with their respective video clips to be colored and composited. (If my dumb internet will upload them, that is. 12 hours per scene!? Sheesh) And I’m...
Merry Christmas from OMAFhq
My Christmas Cactus.
How are you spending your holidays? I'll be-
This happens during all my challenges.
Wow. Well, yesterday was kind of a rollercoaster! Yikes! I know many of you are following this just to find out when I crack and lose it. Well, that was yesterday. It was a sloppy mess of panic attacks, sweating, exhaustion, collapsing into long, unplanned naps and general worrywarting about the insane amount of work I have to do this week. Then stumbling back into my office in a haze and...
Okay guys, I just remembered that 2d is dead. So from now on, The Alias Men will be known as The Alias Men: a 3D Digital One Month Animated IMAX Experience.
Just kidding. This is actually some hilariously awesome art I just got from my boy Gandhi Bazan over in Mexico. He’s always been incredibly supportive of my crazy projects, and there’s a rumor on the street that he might be...
Some Jonathon D. artwork from Jonathon D. (Dalton drawing Doe, that is.) Jonathon Dalton draws some way super neat comics and you should totally check them out.
I can’t thank you all enough for the e-mails, links, words of encouragement and drawings. It’s like clapping for Tinkerbell during a production of Peter Pan. It keeps me from dying!
2 out of 5 characters animated
Okay, I’m done animating Randall Stevens and Alan Smithee. I would be way more excited about this if I didn’t have such a small amount of time to animate all of the other three’s scenes.
As far as scenes go, I’m at 19 out of 42, so I’m nearing the halfway point.
A hilarious chat over on Twitter with David Silverman, director of The Simpsons Movie and co-director of Monsters, Inc.
@tubatron In college you gave me advice on becoming a director. Now that I am a director, any advice on surviving?
@ryanestrada After you took my advice on becoming a director, I’m surprised want more. Seems like I ruined your life pretty well so far.
Wow! Great Alias Men art that just hit my inbox from U! (aka Uriel A Duran) Like the others, this is totally going in the movie!
“Hey Ryan, you have like 11 days to finish this movie. Should you really be spending your time animating an elaborate after-the credits scene?”
“Shut up, voice of reason from inside my brain.”
“Okay.”
Some art of Randall Stevens for the credits from Ed Stockham!
Someone just asked me if they could do a short guest animation of one of the characters to go in the credits. HELL. YES.
Meet the Alias Men: Randall Stevens
I posted a loooot of new stuff on the weekend, so if you weren’t perusing the web then, be sure to scroll down and check it all out!
One big thing I did was finish animation on Randall Stevens, so I guess I’d better introduce him! Randall is the ship’s pilot. He’s incredibly overqualified for the job, but he’s hoping it will be a stepping stone to other...
One of 5 characters animated
Above: the post its that represent each film. Yellow are unfinished, green are animated. When the scene is completely colored and composited, it will be changed to blue. I blured the scene names as so not to ruin the whole dang movie.
I just realized! One of the 5 characters, Randall Stevens, is completely animated! By tomorrow, it should be two.
17 out of 42 scenes animated
Jessica is hard at work coloring, while I animate and clean up drawings. She’s using ToonBoom to do the color.
A lot of people have been talking about how I’m using a ModBook to make the movie. That’s just the type of computer I happen to have. I’m not drawing it digitally, I’m drawing on paper. All the Modbook’s done so far is play podcasts and scan.
* It did...
On March 29, 2006 I posted the following to my LiveJournal. The challenge I was talking about was the One Month Animated Feature. It took me nearly 5 years, but I’m finally doing it.
And then, one day, Ryan had an idea.
Ryan had a wonderful, awful idea.
A whole new type of challenge
to put 168 hour comics to shame
A new type of challenge
To prove he’s insane
This challenge...
Things are still firing along, and I’ve got a new addition to the team! Jessica Plummer has volunteered to help me out with some coloring and compositing, which will allow me more time to spice up the animation a little more!
I’ll allow her to introduce herself:
“I studied animation at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, now work in Chicago at Calabash Animation, INC on some of...
Meet the Alias Men: Henry Connell
When the aliens in The Alias Men try to control the media and cover up knowledge of an invasion, there’s one man that stands in there way. The fast talking, hard nosed editor of The Bulletin, Mr. Henry Connell.
He’s played by James Gleason, reedited from his scenes in Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe, which you can watch in its entirety here. Watching this movie, he quickly became...
Webcomic Movies
The Alias Men, as you know, is based on a webcomic. Yes, it’s a webcomic movie, and it’s not the only one.
While Hollywood has gone nuts for the last decade or so scooping up every comic book property they can get their hands on, you rarely hear much said about webcomic movies. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, and I think it’s something that’s going to...
Meet the Alias Men: Orson Welles
I’ve been introducing some of the animated characters in this film, but let’s not forget that there are live action characters in this film, too! And the biggest bit of star power is a man whose posthumous appearance (through the magic of public domain) brings a bit of class to the film! It’s Orson Welles!
He appears as himself, via footage from the movie The Stranger. Which...
You can now listen to my guest appearance on Comics are Great, in which Jerzy Drozd and I talk and length about this project. The episode is called “Limitations Breed Creativity”
Listen to the interview here
All the show notes are available here.
Blur frames are my favorite thing to draw. They’re the one freaky drawing in the middle of a sequence where a character moves really quickly. No one over sees them because they go by so fast, but they help the audience feel the movement.
To expand upon something that I just discussed in an upcoming interview, I’d like to expand upon something a few people who know my comics have...
To the left, some rough storyboards filled with shorthand that will mean nothing to anyone but me. One of the benefits of doing everything yourself is that you don’t have to make all the behind the scenes stuff presentable.
Well. It’s noon on Day 15. This is the halfway point. I’m still confident! I have 15 scenes animated and cleaned up. 27 to go.
I did want to address one...
An animator named Nick Ingram just sent me this AWESOME drawing of Smithee’s visit to jolly old London! This is totally going in the credits! Remember, if anyone send me art of any of the characters, I’ll put it in the movie credits! That includes the live action actors! Anyone want to draw “The Stranger” era Orson Welles or “Meet John Doe” era James Gleason?
14 scenes animated, which means that 1/3rd of the film is ready to be colored and composited. In the next couple days, I’m aiming for 5 more scenes, which will mean that 2 of the 5 characters are done being animated.
It was nuts all weekend, with the power going out and coming back on 10 seconds at a time, but I animated in 10 second intervals.
I was lagging a little bit further behind,...
So much paper!
12 out of 42 scenes animated.
Still working! I have cleaned up animation done for 9 out of 42 scenes. I’m still going, so here are some random lists…..
I don’t drink coffee. I’m a banana shake man. Here are5 secret ingredients I put in my banana shakes this last week, from best to worst.
Banana/Avacado
Banana/Broccoli
Banana/Black Bean
Banana/Cheese
Banana/Curry
As I mentioned, I’m...
Meet the Alias Men: Jonathan Doe
I was honored last night when Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3, wished me luck on this movie on Twitter! And now, more about the cast of characters!
John Doe is the man on the street. His job is to engage in social situations to find out more about the planet and it’s weaknesses.
Quote: “I am hu-man. I am wearing a hat. This is how you can be certain it is true.”
...
Meet the Alias Men- Alan Smithee
Meet Alan Smithee, the director of the team. He’s the head of the team that’s been training for years to infiltrate the Earth, but it turns out that his ultimate plans may not be as far reaching as everyone else’s. The dude just wants to steal wifi.
He loves surfing the internet, and he’s a’scared of Starbucks security.
He’s played by Scott Kurtz, who draws...
It’s time to announce a new actor on board for The Alias Men, Dan Meth! If you haven’t watched Dan’s cartoons Meth Minute, or Nite Fite, get on it!
Also, Kevin Smith totally just linked to this site. Hoo-ah!
It’s going great! I have my first two and a half minute scene animated and cleaned up, now scanning will commence! I chose the most complicated scene to animate first, just to throw myself into the deep end.
While Tumblr was down you may have missed the photos of me doing cleanup animation on the beach. Cleanup is taking longer than expected, since none of the crappy supplies I can get down here seem to work very well. Everyone in town is on notice, and any time they trek out to civilization, they ask what art supplies I need.
Steve Schnier, on Cartoon Brew, says ”I hope that in his haste, Ryan Estrada remembers that story and character are key. It has to be a movie that people want to see – rather than an “I made this in a month” novelty.”
That is definitely what drove me to try this. While chasing the vast amounts of money it would take to make the visuals for a film slick and perfect, I knew that that...
People keep saying I need a tightly written schedule to do this. Well, so far, my schedule was:
WEEK ONE: Figure out what the hell I’m doing
WEEK TWO: Figure out some kind of work flow
WEEK THREE: Work my balls off
WEEK FOUR: OH CRAP OH CRAP IS IT WEEK FOUR ALREADY OH CRAP
JANUARY 1ST: Done.
But now I’m trying to get myself a little more organized.
I broke the movie down into...
Today's challenge....
First person suggest an indie animated feature I’ve never heard of gets listed in the credits as “Independent Animation Consultant”